Get the violin outta jazz!

[arr&bee]

Yeah i know i'm gonna get scolded on this one,i just don't think that the violin is right in a jazz setting it doesn't fit,even as a backup it takes away from the lead musician,just my opinion.

[splanky]

Jai, you have the right to your opinion, of course, but I and hundreds of thousands of people
over the years could not disagree with you more. All the way back to Stuff Smith and Stephane
Grappelli [[sic) to today's most celebrated jazz violinist, Detroit native, my girl Regina Carter.
A suggestion to ban violins from jazz would fall dead in it's tracks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FReGLY2lLuY

Find another cause....

[milven]

I love stings. I like when they were introduced in rock and roll [[R&B) with the Drifters, "There Goes My Baby"

And the album that made me listen to jazz was the Modern Jazz Quartet's Third Stream Music. It fused classical music with jazz. When listening to Sketch. you can hear the classical strings coming out of one speaker and the jazz from the other. I first heard this back in 1961 and I still love it today. I am far from a jazz aficionado, but this album let me at least have an open mind to listen to jazz

"Critics have argued that Third Stream—by drawing on two very different styles—dilutes the power of each in combining them."

I think that the Third Stream album was a unique musical development

[arr&bee]

I guess what i'm trying to say is that the violin is almost too classical for jazz which is basically free flowing,it's like having pavirotti singing hip hop.

[splanky]

Jai, answer this: What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?.......

[Jerry Oz]

And presented for your listening pleasure [[enjoy, arr&bee!), a Jean-Luc Ponty fusion concert that 99.9% of modern jazz fans would probably have enjoyed had they been there.

[arr&bee]

Thanks jerry,but i'm stickin to my guns on this one...no violins in jazz!!

[Jerry Oz]

That's the thing about opinions: We are all entitled to our own. As for me, I either like it or don't. I don't necessarily give two craps as to why. I'll admit that I did struggle to appreciate a Bela Fleck album once because I'm not big on banjos as lead instruments in jazz.

[StuBass1]

Any instrument should be permitted to play any kind of music if it's good...

[splanky]

Again, it all boils down to personal taste but we have to remember our own preferences
cannot and never will dictate reality. If mine could 90 percent of hip hop post 1995 wouldn't
even exist...Anyway Stu and Jerry bring up some interesting points to me. For one,
I friggin' love Bela Fleck and his use of the banjo in jazz. The only thing is , being that the
banjo is a descendent of an African musical instrument, for sometime I used to wish he
were black. That is, I use to wish some black musician had taken it to the level of prominence
he has to in the last 20 + years. I've gotten past that...Second, I agree with Stu that any
musical instrument can be allowed to be play any genre of music but I admit to not
completely enjoying accordions in African music and for years I've agreed with the
notion "There are no clarinets in Funk". I don't remember where I first heard that but
I've been looking for an exception and haven't funk one yet. When Jazz clarinetist Don
Byron decided to dip into funk on his releases he always switched to a sax. BTW,
Jean Luc Ponty was the shit!....

[StuBass1]

I believe that "theoretically" an accordion could be used in jazz...The reason that we've not heard it is that I'd assume that most accordionists who would be so prone to seek to record music would likely have switched to keyboards or another instrument by that time...I assume that most accordion players in their 30's are playing a lot of polkas...I'm pretty sure our Ralph started on accordion and switched to keys....much like I tried using an upright bass in rock bands because that was all I had at the time, bur realized that I'd have to beg mom and dad dad to buy me my first electric bass guitar and amp if I wanted to be invited into bands...As for clarinets in todays Jazz...I'd say that some of the Kenny G type stuff he plays on soprano sax could be played on clarinet...And two of the greatest musical pioneers in jazz...Benny Goodman and the legendry Artie Shaw claimed their fame on the licorice stick...

[Jerry Oz]

Jazz, like Blues, Rock, Country, and Soul, is a feeling as much as anything else. And if you feel it when you hear it, you'll know it. And I eventually came to appreciate Bela Fleck and the Wooten brothers. They were awesome together. Great point about the clarinet; I'm taken aback by the point and I'll probably think about it for the next month or so until I hear one in funk or get tired of trying.

[StuBass1]

Clarinet in funk???...Artie Shaw would have found a way...if he hadn't gotten pissed off with music in general and turned his clarinet into a lamp...

[splanky]

I believe that "theoretically" an accordion could be used in jazz...The reason that we've not heard it is that I'd assume that most accordionists who would be so prone to seek to record music would likely have switched to keyboards or another instrument by that time...I assume that most accordion players in their 30's are playing a lot of polkas...I'm pretty sure our Ralph started on accordion and switched to keys....

Stu, I don't know what your listening habits are but there have been accordions in jazz
for more than 30 years. They're even prominent in a very popular sub-genre known
world wide as Gypsy jazz. Any visitor to the various jazz festivals, past and present, has
heard or will hear them. I just think in a lot of the polyrhythmic and polyphonic music
that comes out much so called world music they sometimes seem out of place...

[arr&bee]

ACCORDIONS IN JAZZ DON'T WORK FOR ME EITHER[picky ain't I, hehe]YES I'VE HEARD THEM AND NOPE.

[StuBass1]

Stu, I don't know what your listening habits are but there have been accordions in jazz
for more than 30 years. They're even prominent in a very popular sub-genre known
world wide as Gypsy jazz. Any visitor to the various jazz festivals, past and present, has
heard or will hear them. I just think in a lot of the polyrhythmic and polyphonic music
that comes out much so called world music they sometimes seem out of place...

Too much time I the funkhouse I guess...I''ll have to check it out...